The Presidential Election and Misogyny

Here’s a misogynistic article if I ever read one.
In today’s New York Times column titled “The Great Man’s Wife,” Maureen Dowd uses almost all those words that make me wince in despair for the things women say about other women. Some of these words are Dowd’s own and others are couched in quotes from other people. But, an analysis of “Callista” apparently needs words like “trophy wife,” “mistress,” “Barbie,” and more. Does the 2012 Presidential election have to turn candidates’ wives into collateral damage?

In the coming months, I have no doubt that comparisons to First Lady Michele Obama will actually do less for the image of women in power and stray quite far from the path feminism laid out for us. So much is about which side we’re on, isn’t it? So much is about what we read into an image, isn’t it? Take this picture of President Obama and the First Lady, for instance. What do you see? Love, companionship, power and respect? Well, I also see a man busy at work on his Blackberry and a woman literally twiddling her thumbs while staring vacantly into space. I don’t want to see this picture and my brain tells me this is not what’s going on. But, to someone who doesn’t get this couple’s “context,” it could be what’s going on.

So, taking our minds behind the words and images laid out by journalists on either side, let’s give “Callista” a little more context, shall we?

What? Are you waiting for me to do it? Do it yourself. That’s the point.